A week after Morgan Wallen stalked off SNL the NBC late nighter made sure the door hit the hit the I’m the Problem singer on the way out.
“Get me to God’s county,” mocked Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) in a direct swipe at controversy inviting Wallen’s post-SNL Instagram post of his private jet heading to Nashville and the caption, “Get me to God’s country.” Coming at the tail end of SNL’s ripping of POTUS’ April 2 borderline incoherent Liberation Day tariffs speech, the jibe at Wallen’s discourtesy got a roar from the crowd in Studio 8H
Beyond the witty takedown of Wallen, Liberation Day came to Saturday Night Live tonight, as did the Cheesecake Factory menu and Mike Myers.
Back as Elon Musk for Trump’s rambling Rose Garden announcement of reciprocal tariffs kneecapping the global economy, the literally and figuratively glitchy DOGE chief offered an increasingly anti-Tesla America a new electric option. “We are introducing the new Tesla Model V, the first electric car in history to be fully self-vandalizing,” Myers’ Musk proclaimed.
When it comes to Trump’s tariffs, SNL cut to the chase.
“Your money’s gone, but that okay, we’ll figure it out,” declared Johnson’s Trump in yet another pitch perfect capture of the White House occupant by the cast member.
Or put it another way: Trump 2.0 hasn’t been that great for the rule of law and many portions of America, but it’s sure been great for SNL cold opens, to paraphrase ex-CBS boss Les Moonves.
An 11th hour TikTok deadline extension, crashing stock markets, and rumors of the much-desired DOGE departure of Musk were among the pickings out of this week’s headlines for tonight with all making the cut to some degree. So were the record busting upper chamber marathon speech by Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ), revelations of more Signal group chats by the National Security Advisor, the firing of the NSA chief on the advice of MAGA influencer Laura Loomer and a former Celebrity Apprentice host who spent a lot of time golfing in Florida while almost all the apple carts were overturned. While the potential bomb threat against the SNL studio earlier this week by an apparent Scarlett Johansson thankfully didn’t make the cut, another cold open topic could have been Saturday’s well attended anti-MAGA Hands Off marches and protest all across the nation and the globe.
Back for his self-declared thrice stint as host, Jack Black is riding high this weekend with the massive box office debut of A Minecraft Movie. Co-starring Jason Manoa, the Warner Bros/Legendary adaptation of the addictive video game took videogame flicks to the next level with an opening weekend haul of $260 million.
Adding to the gold-plated nature of tonight’s 16th episode of the 50th SNL season (and 984th episode overall of the Lorne Micheals created late nightery) is the return of Elon John for his third spin on the show over his more than 50-year career Plugging his new album with the wonderfully ubiquitous Brandi Carlile, the EGOT winner is the musical guest this week with Oscar nominee Carlile, who is back for her third time too.
Back with another new show next week, SNL will be hosted by Jon Hamm. Back for his fourth time as the frontman on April 12, the Mad Men and 30 Rock vet’s new series Your Friends and Neighbors launches on AppleTV+ on April 11. Also back for the fourth time on SNL, Lizzo is the musical guest next week. The Grammy winner has been the musical guest twice before and did double duty as host and musical guest on April 16, 2022.
